Want to Sell More via Social Media? Get on Customers’ Schedules!

If you typically only post sales and events posts across social networks during regular business hours, a decent number of your customers will never see them. That’s not just because their actions tell Facebook they aren’t interested, nor is it solely because thousands of businesses are posting during the work day. It is estimated more than 20% of US-based companies prevent employees from accessing Facebook during company time. Some block access to all social media, including Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Others even block access to webmail services, like Gmail.

While the chart below was based on a study from last September, its simplicity really gets the point across. These numbers continue to rise as employers see people connecting via work hours as detrimental to tasks at hand.

True, many employees circumvent the rules by accessing networks via their smartphones, but they typically don’t have the time to take any action. While I’m sure plenty of workers access all sorts of things on their smartphone during work hours, they typically won’t have the time to take any real action.

This is why you keep hearing that social media is neither a part-time job nor “same-time-of-the-day” job. In order to reach the widest audience, you need to sprinkle updates at different times of the day, including early morning (think, sunrise) and evening hours.

This goes for email blasts, too. Test various send times, including sunrise hours, and see what works for your target audience. You might find that the majority of your customers check their email before the morning commute, or that they like to check into their favorite network after they’ve finished the dishes and put the kids to bed.